DIGITAL PROGRESS
INNOVATION BRINGS TAX WINDFALL
A surface adhesion company has unlocked nearly £10,000 in government incentives for work that unexpectedly qualified as R&D. Tantec UK specialises in plasma surface
treatments that are used to bond materials within the aviation, medical, automotive and electronics industries. Differences in the material composition,
ink type, adhesive and coating applied mean every solution is unique and has to be tailored to each client’s specific needs. One particularly challenging project in
2018 was to bond automotive plastics to various components, including tapes, spray adhesive and leather. The company had to rely on a bespoke approach that qualified under the HMRC R&D tax credit scheme resulting in a £9,412 tax benefit
ELECTRIC REVOLUTION FUNDING
More than 20 projects to help the UK reach net zero carbon by reducing emissions in the transport, energy and industrial sectors share nearly £6 million in UK Research and Innovation funding. The projects, involving start-ups, universities and some of Britain’s biggest companies, obtained the funding from the Driving the Electric Revolution challenge. The money will help grow the UK’s
power electronics, machines and drives (PEMD) supply chain and increase manufacturing capability to allow future improvements in productivity, quality, capacity or efficiency.
This investment into the PEMD supply chain is vital to ensure the UK reaches net zero, as some or all these technologies can be found in every electrical item. From mobile phones to hairdriers and the motors in electric vehicles and trains, PEMD make them work. As they are such a crucial technology across sectors from transport to energy to agriculture, net zero is not possible without PEMD. Driving the Electric Revolution launched
in 2019 and is funded by an £80m investment from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, run by UK Research and Innovation.
❱❱ Over 20 UK companies share UKRI funding to kickstart electric innovation to meet 2050 climate targets
❱❱ Development of new plasma adhesion techniques qualified as R&D work, resulting in a tax credit for Tantec
paid back to the firm as a lump sum. An off-the-shelf solution may have
worked but specific materials, high volume throughput and a variety of technical requirements needed to be explored first, which involved discussions with the client before performing trials on those parts crucial to solving the problem. One aspect of testing is to look at the
surface energy of a material before and after different treatments are applied using a range of techniques. In an attempt to find a solution, Tantec experimented with different treatments to ensure the desired result could be achieved within deadlines that dovetailed with the timetables governing other elements in production. This qualified as R&D, which is defined
as any work seeking to resolve a scientific or technological uncertainty, whether that be a new process, product or service, or an improvement to an existing one.
March 2021 /// Testing & Test Houses /// 33
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